As part of our 7,000 faculty, our accomplished professors are thought leaders in their fields who are passionate about educating and inspiring students.

Laurence Harris, York U Professor of Psychology, Faculty of Health

As one of Canada’s leading vision scientists, Laurence is driving research to better understand how the brain processes sensory information to create innovative applications in engineering and medicine.

John Tsotsos FRSC, Distinguished Research Professor, Lassonde School of Engineering & Centre For Vision Research

A pioneer in vision science, John’s research has led to new knowledge about how the brain functions and the development of seeing robot systems for intelligent wheelchairs, search and rescue missions, and planetary rovers.

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Costas Armenakis, York U Associate Professor of Geomatics Engineering, Lassonde School of Engineering

In the event of a major disaster, disaster response personnel must rely on two-dimensional maps and Google Map data to determine their plan of action. But what happens when those maps are out of date or not matched?

An innovative project underway at York University involving the Faculty of Science & Engineering, the Faculty of Graduate Studies, and the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, is redrawing the map for emergency personnel. The project, which is funded by York University’s Academic Innovation Fund (AIF), brings engineers and students from the Geomatics Engineering Program together with scientists and students in the Graduate Program in Disaster & Emergency Management, to work on a new 3-D map system that incorporates a wealth of data from different resources into one seamless 3-D geospatial interface that will improve decision making in the event of an emergency.

We’ve seen AQUA before — the little amphibious robot with flippers that can swim underwater. Developed by York and McGill researchers, it became the darling of international science press two years ago when it was tested in sparkling blue Caribbean waters. At a demonstration of robots Monday, AQUA shed its flippers for six land-hugging, rubber-treaded, semi-circular legs to climb sand banks and gravel mounds at the University of Toronto’s Mars Dome.

Observers cheered as AQUA churned up clouds of sand like a burrowing beetle trying mightily to reach the top. It was doing tricks for the media after a weekend of robotic field trials at Keele campus and the Mars Dome.

The study, “CryoSat-2 estimates of Arctic sea ice thickness and volume”, published in the journal, Geophysical Research Letters , examined data gathered by the European Space Agency’s CryoSat-2 satellite from 2010 to 2012, comparing it to data taken from NASA’s ICESat satellite from 2003 to 2008. Results show an extensive sea ice thinning in the Arctic between 2003 and 2012, with 36 per cent loss of ice volume in autumn and nine per cent loss in winter.

Like an archeologist of the universe, York physics & astronomy Professor Patrick Hall studies quasars already dead for billions of years by the time their light reaches the lens of a telescope here on Earth. Hall’s quest is to uncover the nature of quasar winds and what impact they may have on galaxies, such as the Milky Way in the future.

These quasar winds can be quite influential in the creation of galaxies. They can turn on or shut down star formation. Between two and four billion years in the future, scientists expect the Milky Way and the Andromeda spiral galaxies to collide and become one elliptical galaxy. If this occurs, the two black holes at the centre of each will likely merge and the resulting quasar winds will shut down any future star formation in the new galaxy.

Laurence Packer, who studies wild bees at York University in Toronto and wasn’t involved with the new report, praised the work for its breadth and geographical scope. The findings are important and should be taken seriously, he said. “Honeybees aren’t all they’re cracked up to be,” Packer said. “Other bees are far more important than people thought,” he said in the Los Angeles Times Feb. 28

A Toronto researcher has played a key role in research that could help uncover the origins of life, the universe and everything. York University physics Professor Sampa Bhadra was part of a 400-person team that studied the behaviour of neutrinos and proved that muon neutrinos can transform into electron neutrinos, which could go a long way toward uncovering why matter, and not antimatter, has formed the basic building block for the universe. “Neutrinos were formed as part of the big bang and they’re the most abundant matter particle in the universe,” said Bhadra in the City Centre Mirror Aug. 1. “With the big bang, matter and antimatter were created equally, so this discovery could help us see why matter has won out over time.”

Professor and clinical psychologist Jonathan Weiss of York University’s Faculty of Health is the new Chair in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) Treatment and Care Research, the federal government announced Monday at York.

The chair, which will receive some $2 million in funding over five years, will study ways to improve the mental health and well-being of people with ASD and their families in Canada.

Everyone from young sports players to construction workers may be at risk of being declared fit for regular duties too soon after having a concussion because no one tests their cognitive and mobility skills together, says York kinesiology Professor Lauren Sergio.

They could be at heightened risk of re-injuring themselves or others, says Sergio, who recently received a $472,549 Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CHIR) operating grant over five years.

Chronic high-levels of the stress hormone cortisol could inhibit the growth of blood vessels and lead to cardiovascular complications, as well as poor skeletal muscle blood flow, in people with diabetes, obesity or Cushing’s syndrome, a new study by York researchers has found.

The study by principal researcher Tara Haas of York’s School of Kinesiology & Health Science and Muscle Health Research Centre in the Faculty of Health in collaboration with York kinesiology Professor Michael Riddell was published online in the peer-reviewed journal PLoS One in October.

York psychology Professor Shayna Rosenbaum will receive the Canadian Association for Neuroscience 2013 Young Investigator Award at the opening ceremony of the upcoming annual meeting in Toronto Tuesday, May 21.

A cognitive neuroscientist and clinical neuropsychologist, Rosenbaum, considered a renowned expert in the area of cognitive neuroscience of memory, combines brain imaging techniques with cognitive methods to study the neural bases of learning and memory in patients with memory impairment.

Anne Russon, Professor, Department of Psychology, Glendon College

Twenty-nine-year-old Kanzi has been taught English at the research centre of the Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa, wrote London, UK’s Daily Mail Aug. 12. He is one of seven [bonobo] apes there, and their incredible progress is forcing us to reassess everything we thought we knew about animals and intelligence.

But Kanzi is not the only reason for such a reassessment. Only this week, Canadian researchers at York’s Glendon College reported that orangutans use mime to act out elaborate messages to other apes – and, indeed, to people – to get them to do what they want.

Who should control water? It is as essential for life as air, but also holds deep emotional, social, cultural and spiritual significance, says York’s Glendon College sociology Professor Joanna Robinson.

Robinson tackles this critical and contested issue of control in her new book, Contested Water: The Struggle Against Water Privatization in the United States and Canada (MIT Press), which examines the emerging politics of water today, focusing on two local social movements against water privatization. It is the first scholarly examination of the social processes that underlie movements against water privatization. It reveals important insights about the mechanisms that shape local movements in a global context.

There was a time when parents worried if their children played Dungeons & Dragons. The role-playing game that became infamous in the ’90s because of its association with the occult was considered anti-Christian and playing it was to take a big step down the road to ruin.

But things turned out not so bad for Glendon history Professor Mark Jurdjevic, who admits he was an aficionado in his youth. His taste for wizards and necromancers ultimately inspired an interest and a career in Renaissance history that this year won him a fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, a post he will take up in August when he leaves on sabbatical.

Dorin Uritescu, Professor, Department of French Studies, Glendon College

Research Questions: (1) How do you put a linguistic atlas online and make the data available for an interactive digital analysis? (2) What characteristics of the geolinguistic variation could one discover when the linguistic data is analysed digitally?

York University researcher Caitlin Fisher, professor in the Department of Film and Canada Research Chair in Digital Culture, has received a Fulbright Award to conduct advanced research in the United States on augmented reality and data visualization.

As Fulbright Visiting Research Chair at the University of California – Santa Barbara from March to June 2013, Fisher will be conducting research on a project titled “Emerging forms of cultural expression: data visualization, augmented reality and new media storytelling and tools for artists and humanists”.

Ethnomusicologist Rob Bowman, who is widely known as York University’s “rock ‘n’ roll professor”, recently returned from Memphis, Tennessee where he was inducted – as the sole literary entry – into the Blues Hall of Fame.

This is just the latest distinction Bowman has won for his book Soulsville, U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records, an in-depth investigation into one of the most influential recording studios in American history and the birthplace of Memphis Sound.

Lovebirds, a mix of animation and live action from by Toronto company Starz Animation, is the showcase production of the Toronto-based 3D Film Innovation Consortium (3D FLIC), a York University initiative that has brought academic researchers and filmmakers together to explore the burgeoning world of 3D filmmaking to achieve better results, wrote Liam Lacey in The Globe and Mail March 25.

The movie, which unites new research into visual perception with the practical aspects of 3D filmmaking, is part of an attempt to boost the local film economy and improve the 3D viewing experience – with less nausea, eye strain and headaches.

Roger Keil, York U Professor, Faculty of Environmental Studies

The event is called The World in the City: Metropolitanism and Globalization from the 19th Century to Present. It is the second in an annual gathering of academics and PhD students involved in a variety of fields concerning the urbanism. The first was held in Berlin last year, and this year, York University and the University of Toronto are co-hosting the event in Toronto starting Thursday, May 30, and running through to June 2, reported Radio Canada International May 30. Roger Keil, director of the City Institute at York University, is one of the keynote speakers and an organizer of the event that will bring together experts from universities in Berlin and New York, in addition to those from the two Toronto Universities.

Jennifer Jenson, York U Professor, Faculty of Education

A new app called Compareware, created by York Professor Jennifer Jenson and her design team, is helping kids practice reading and develop an understanding of how to judge the similarities and differences between objects.

The game, which targets early readers up to grade 2, is simple for children to understand. It asks users “how objects are the same” and then provides them with a list of options for them to choose. For example, meat and fish – same; you eat them – same etc. Users drag and drop the objects onto the correct answers.

Stephen Gaetz, York U Associate Professor, Faculty of Education

“The thought of ending youth homelessness can feel like an impossible task given the overwhelming scope of the problem and its apparent complexity. However, a lot is known about effectively responding to youth homelessness,” writes York education Professor Stephen Gaetz, director of the Canadian Homelessness Research Network (CHRN) and co-editor of Youth Homelessness in Canada, in the book’s concluding chapter.

Robert MacDermid, York U Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

A video of developers in Calgary discussing the city’s upcoming municipal election illustrates how lobby groups try to influence elections, said York University political science Professor Robert MacDermid in the Toronto Star May 3. “It absolutely happens in the GTA,” he said. What’s seen on the video is no different than what many lobby groups do when trying to find support for their causes, “but just because it happens, doesn’t make it any less appalling,” said MacDermid. “We expect our elected officials to represent us, not corporations or industries.”

Five researchers from York University have been awarded $499,152 from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to support social research and knowledge mobilization initiatives. The Public Outreach Grants support existing and ongoing projects that mobilize research results to a range of audiences beyond academia.

The grants, part of $6.3 million in funding and awards invested across the country, will support over 95 research projects to improve Canadians’ quality of life, while addressing important socio-cultural and economic issues.

Poonam Puri, York U Associate Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School

Five researchers from York University have been awarded $499,152 from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to support social research and knowledge mobilization initiatives. The Public Outreach Grants support existing and ongoing projects that mobilize research results to a range of audiences beyond academia.

The grants, part of $6.3 million in funding and awards invested across the country, will support over 95 research projects to improve Canadians’ quality of life, while addressing important socio-cultural and economic issues.

Andrew Crane, York U George R. Gardiner Professor of Business Ethics, Schulich School of Business

“I’d say business ethics is definitely bigger now than it was 10 or 20 years ago. You can see that in a number of ways,” said Schulich School of Business Professor Andrew Crane in the Financial Post Aug. 1. “First off, it’s not something a CEO has any kind of embarrassment talking about these days. It’s much more part of the company agenda, a key part of doing business.[…]I think the biggest change is that companies are starting to see there might be some advantage to being ethical.[…]Ethics isn’t just seen as a cost of business but also a potential opportunity.”

Matthias Kipping, York U Professor, Policy Specialization, Schulich School of Business

A Schulich business history professor is the recipient of a $15,000 teaching excellence award, reported the North York Mirror April 18. Business history Chair and policy Professor Matthias Kipping has won the top prize in the student-run Seymour Schulich Teaching Excellence Awards program. The awards were presented by Inder Dhillon and Bori Csillag, president and vice-president of the Graduate Business Council respectively, on behalf of the school’s 1,138 master’s students.